Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

Today, as I was looking for peanut butter cookie recipes online, my neice asked if we could make peanut butter cookies. Which is interesting considering that the other day when I was sitting on the couch thinking about decorating gingerbread people, she asked if we could make gingerbread cookies.

I found a great recipe on the FatFree Vegan Kitchen website, and made a few changes.
Here's the version I made:
1/2 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup demerara sugar
3/4 cup mashed organic banana
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt

Mix together peanut butter, sugar and banana.

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
Add slowly to peanut butter mixture.
Rub a bit of margarine on baking sheet, and flatten cookies with a fork dipped in water.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

Super easy to make, and uses only simple/common ingredients. The cookies don't have a heavy peanut butter taste, and the flavour of the banana is nicely prominent.




See the original recipe at:
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/12/lower-fat-peanut-butter-banana-cookies.html

On another note, the house I'm staying at right now has these large glass baking pans, so I've been using them instead of cookie sheets. They are great for baking both meals and desserts. I just coat them in a little bit of margarine, which in my opinion is a much healthier alternative then Teflon coated cookie sheets. Non-stick cookware contains PFOA (Perfluoroctanoic Acid), an unregulated chemical that is in the bloodstream of 95% of Americans. PFOA is a man-made chemical, and although it doesn't naturally occur in the environment, it has been found in the systems of many types of animals, even in remote locations.

Teflon can be found in all kinds of other products as well, including carpets, clothes, and even food packaging. Even if it is safe, it isn't necessary, so it's better just to avoid it altogether. The amount of fat it takes to prevent other types of cookware from sticking is minimal, and is not enough to actually make any significant changes in the fat content of the food.